Passenger barred from F flight for tracky dacks

[drewbles]

from nonews..

Armando Alvarez barred from United Airlines | Travel News | News.com.au

A PASSENGER says he was "humiliated" at being refused a first-class seat for wearing trackies.

On Domestic F no less..

After seeing how some people dress on US Flights, i'm surprised

 

[harvyk]

I'm with the guy, for anything other than the shortest flights I'll always wear something comfortable and take the suit in my bags...

I've even been known to take a change of clothes for a single day CBR - MEL return so that I can fly back home wearing something other than a suit...

 

[drewbles]

I'm with the guy, for anything other than the shortest flights I'll always wear something comfortable and take the suit in my bags...

I've even been known to take a change of clothes for a single day CBR - MEL return so that I can fly back home wearing something other than a suit...

I guess it's pretty easy to have a comfortable pair of jeans for flying (I do, in fact I really only wear jeans pretty much everywhere).

I keep meaning to buy a pair of tracky dacks for home, but my jeans are fine

 

[moa999]

And 'real' first class airlines give you the trackies/pyjamas.


As it was this guy was on an 'upgrade' fare.

My thorey - plane oversold / broken equipment and he's been downgraded (as not a full fare).
He's complained, a staff member made a stupid comment about what he was wearing.
He blames this and goes to the press

 

[albatross710]

Sounds like he was hard done by.

Some of the dress standards that passengers do board with are pretty lax though.

 

[harvyk]

I guess it's pretty easy to have a comfortable pair of jeans for flying (I do, in fact I really only wear jeans pretty much everywhere).

I keep meaning to buy a pair of tracky dacks for home, but my jeans are fine

If nothing else, flying in a suit risks damaging your suit. It's really annoying when I hit turbulence and part of my dinner (usually the part that's on your fork at the time) ends up all over my good shirt. For really important meetings where presentation is everything (because I'm getting them to part with $$$) I've been known to fly CBR - MEL in jeans and then get changed into my suit once I arrived.

FWIW I've only ever done one J flight in a suit, the rest have always been in casual... (Although most people flying INT don't wear suits)

 

[maninblack]

If the story is true as told it is beyond ridiculous. A tracksuit is sensible travel attire and it looks like he was wearing quite a reasonable one too. On top of this there is absolutely nothing against it in UA's contract of carriage.Have done it myself. I know a particular Australian tycoon and his spouse who always fly in tracksuits, they better not try it on them!

The man looks perfectly neat.
United Investigating After Man Denied First-Class Seat

 

[Mr Ed]

It was because he is bald.

 

[Oneworldplus2]

"Customer is always right" comes to mind...to an extent. Whats wrong with casual and if your paying for the ticket, it's a sale and airlines need sales. Bottom line.

 

[Paddy55]

I would have thought tracky daks was entirely appropriate on US domestic F... which seems to me to generally fall between PE and J on QF

Paddy

 

[Mal]

Surely there's something missing with this article... it just doesn't sound right.

 

[MelUser]

My guess is that he was upgraded - as are most people in the US First Cabins - they all mill around the gate asking for an upgrade - and then downgraded as they had to make space for someone else.

Perhaps in choosing who to downgrade they looked at him and his appearance/demeanour said it all!

 

[Mal]

My guess is that he was upgraded

In the article, he claims to have used miles to upgrade: "Mr Alvarez said he used air miles to upgrade to first class on a flight from Dulles to Connecticut. "

 

[Mal]

Bit more info coming out from the airline. Appears the gate agent was confused and thought he was a non-rev:

Man denied first-class seat on United for wearing track suit - Flights: Airfare, flight tracker, delays, miles tracker & airport news - Today in the Sky - USATODAY.com

United is out with its side of the story. (Scroll down for the original post.) Airline spokesman Robin Urbanski told me in an e-mail Thursday evening that the airline does not have a policy that would prevent a customer from sitting in first class for dressing too casually. Instead, the gate agent apparently thought the customer in a track suit was an airline employee. If that would have been the case, an employee would have been subject to a dress code.

"We are working with our sub-contractor that was helping us with this flight to investigate what happened and ensure something like this does not happen again," Urbanski said in the e-mail. "This was an unfortunate miscommunication with the gate agent who speaks English as a second language and was simultaneously assisting another customer when he believed Mr. Alvarez to be an airline employee in which a dress code policy is required."

 

[lovestotravel]

So UA is firstly blaming a "sub-contractor" and then the empolyee has their 2nd language as English.

The best part is that UA's domestic first class is pathetic!

Their 757 fleet is falling apart!

 

[turtlemichael]

Bit more info coming out from the airline. Appears the gate agent was confused and thought he was a non-rev:

Man denied first-class seat on United for wearing track suit - Flights: Airfare, flight tracker, delays, miles tracker & airport news - Today in the Sky - USATODAY.com

The agent's explanation appears to me to have about the same likelihood as "we were arguing about airline policy and missed Minneapolis". I'll bet an agent who just got it wrong and is now being shafted by UA. A few zillion miles or lifetime first may stop him suing..or maybe not.

 

[samh004]

My thorey - plane oversold / broken equipment and he's been downgraded (as not a full fare).
He's complained, a staff member made a stupid comment about what he was wearing.
He blames this and goes to the press

Seems like a good theory, but if that wasn't the case, he'd have a pretty strong case to claim compensation from them. Then again, if your theory is correct, and they said that to him, still a good reason for compensation.

Seeing his photo, and what he had on, it doesn't look that bad to be refused boarding. What a crock.

 

[NM]

I wonder if wearing a pair of BA, QF, or CX First Class pyjamas would be considered by UA as inappropriate for travel in their domestic "first class" cabin

 

[JohnK]

About time the airlines started policing dress standards for all passengers not just First class.

I guess it's pretty easy to have a comfortable pair of jeans for flying (I do, in fact I really only wear jeans pretty much everywhere).

It is also extremely easy to have a comfortable pair of pleated pants. Why do people consider a pair of jeans more comfortable than a pair of slacks or suit pants?

Some of the dress standards that passengers do board with are pretty lax though.

Some people should never go out in public with the clothes they wear these days....

 

[Flashback]

If nothing else, flying in a suit risks damaging your suit. It's really annoying when I hit turbulence and part of my dinner (usually the part that's on your fork at the time) ends up all over my good shirt. For really important meetings where presentation is everything (because I'm getting them to part with $$$) I've been known to fly CBR - MEL in jeans and then get changed into my suit once I arrived.

FWIW I've only ever done one J flight in a suit, the rest have always been in casual... (Although most people flying INT don't wear suits)

About half the people on the upper deck on my J flight from MEL-SIN (most were continuing to LHR) were in suit attire.... I personally don't see the point! I guess they want to hit the ground running when they land.